For the past three years I have
generated my own power, 24 hours a day at Versailles. Since I started
broadcasting in 1982 my house and the TV operation were on the same line from
the GEC grid. Sometime within the intervening 20 year period I became aware
that GEC and then GP&L were charging me commercial rates for my house since
they refused to put in two meters one for the house and one for the
transmission station located in my yard, every time I asked them to put in a
domestic meter for my house and a commercial meter for the transmission hut they
said that the did not have meters, but I knew that this had nothing to do with
meters, if they can charge me commercial rates for my house then why not, so
one day I decided that I will not be paying any further light bills. And I put
an injunction against GP&L preventing them from disconnecting me until they
put the two meters in place since it was obscene that they should be charging
me commercial rates for my house. So since they could not disconnect me nor
could they collect money from me it forced them to do what they should have done
20 years before, they came and installed the two meters. Now remember that I
was paying commercial rates for my house for over 20 years, I estimate nearly 5-7
million dollars extra by today's yardstick!
In the process the workmen who came here
alleged that I had interfered with the meter i.e. there was evidence of
tampering, I told them that there had to be some mistake that I never tampered
with the meter, they then went to one of my brothers and told him that they had
found evidence of tampering and asked for a raise, I told him to disregard them
since I never tampered with the meter and paying them would be tantamount to a
confession that I did tamper with it, so he should tell them to go to hell. Since
we are on meters let me say this 15-20 years ago they changed the electrical
supply in the West Demerara from 50 cycles to 60 cycles but they did not change
the meters to 60 cycle ones those among you who do not understand the
significance of using a meter set up for 50 cycles.... to read 60 cycles should
find out from an electrician, it is my opinion that everyone in the West
Demerara was robbed in this conversion and that robbery continues to this day,
you are paying 5/6 more than you should pay according to these old electrical
meters!
Anyway Mc Elory then the ESBI commercial
manager and I met and decided that taking damage they did to my equipment into
consideration, I owed 1.8 million in electrical fees and that is what I should
pay. But they never adjusted my bill to reflect this 1.8 million, they
continued to bill me 3 or 4 million dollars outstanding and I decided not to
pay until they rectified the account. But ultimately since they were bigger
crooks than Blackie, I decided not to buy power from GP&L but to generate
my own.
So since 2002 I have been generating my
own power and I do not use GP&L since I consider them to be a pack of
vagabonds out to victimise me.
We in this country have this high rate
for electricity 4 times higher than anywhere else which is due to what are
known as technical losses including incompetence, corruption and theft.
I have in my possession the light bills
for the Strand Deluxe cinema in the name of one Ganga Persaud and others,
account number 12-016-180-16, meter number 56833 for the period October 2004 to
October 2005 these bills for this cinema average a usage of around 1600 units
at tariff B around $90,000 a month, the amount owed is G$2,219,927 the bill not
having been paid for several months this raises two questions 1. Why were they
not disconnected and 2. How can their usage be so low? This cinema has 4 shows
a day using high wattage lamps to project the film to the screen, the Cinema is
also air-conditioned or at least they have very large fans cooling the place,
they also have freezers to keep the drinks cool, now the last light bill I had
from GP&L in 2002 was for $350,000 a month, but the Strand Cinema's light
bill is less than G$100,000 per month in 2005, and they owed GP&L
$2,219,927 as of October 2005 which should have lead to automatic disconnection.
But me they are disconnecting for arrears totalling 53 thousand dollars.
I will now state some facts, you ladies
and gentlemen will decide if they have any significance in this matter or any
other matter, the owners of the Strand cinema are PPP activists of that there
can be no question, Mr. Kresh Nandalall who looks after disconnection and
payment at GP&L, is the brother of Anil Nandalall an executive member of
the PPP & legal Attorney to Mr. Annand Persaud one of the owners of the Strand
Cinema and fellow PPP activists! Are these associations connected? Have people
been put in positions at GP&L's billing and disconnection department to execute
a political agenda? to ease up those who are activists and loyalist of the PPP
and to penalise those who are not? You decide.
On Friday 21st April 2006 one
Mr. Khan from GP&L called my wife at VCT and told her that there was a
meter at the VCT office at Quamina street which they thought was inactive and
for which they were not submitting any bills, but they now felt that this meter
was active so we must pay 4 million dollars for the last two years estimated
usage. My wife Jewel has learnt a few things from me so she told Khan that he should
be informed that using cocaine was illegal in this country and the discussion
ended. Less than 2 hours later a disconnection crew arrived at VCT to disconnect
the entire building from the grid, now remember that there was one meter for
which we were paying 50 odd thousand dollars every month but they nevertheless disconnected
both meters the one we were paying for and the one that we did not know
existed, obviously I asked them why not disconnect only the one that was in
dispute and leave the other one we were paying for until we determine what
exactly the second meter was for since neither we or them knew what was being
powered by it, they said that their instruction was to disconnected both, I
then called my lawyer since this was the most reprehensible things I ever heard
of i.e. they were disconnecting an entire building since electricity was going
somewhere which neither them or we knew about and for which we were never
billed. I then called this Khan at GP&L and asked him a few questions e.g.
1. why disconnect both since only one is in question, especially since he could
not produce a request for payment for the unknown one, Khan's response was that
the did not know, all he knew was that his bosses Deosingh and Nandalall [you
hear who are in charge of this billing section?] told Khan to disconnect us. At
the trials of Nuremburg after world war two these same questions became issues,
do you obey an instruction from Hitler or the Nazi's when you know it to be wrong,
when you know that in this case if these two PPP activists were committing human
rights violations against me in reprisal for my exercising my god given and
constitutional right to tell you that what criminals the PPP are should Khan
have carried out this instruction which he himself knew to be wrong! So notwithstanding
that the chairman of GP&L himself stands accursed to this day of tampering
with his meters and which have not been adequately answered, Khan said that I
have to come and discuss with him the usage of this imaginary meter and agree to
pay for two years arrears, these morons should be aware that they cannot demand
arrears for more than 6 months according to the act setting up the GP&L and
GEC, especially for a meter registering power which no one knew about and for
which no bill has been submitted, having alerted Khan that my mother did not punish
and labour for nine months to bear a fool, I demanded that he reconnect that
part of the building which we have been paying for.
He apparently agreed since we were
reconnected after paying the outstanding balance of 53 thousand dollars and the
reconnection fee of $3000, to our utter astonishment they came again at around
4.30 5.00 PM and disconnected the building a second time! When asked why, they
told us that I was supposed to go into GP&L and discuss this second meter
with the CEO, they expect me Tony Vieira to go in hat in hand to GP&L to
beg some PPP hack for a favour? Khan, Deowhoever and Nandalall can continue to
dream? I know where the law court is.
